On Monday, the Sikh Coalition released the FlyRights app (PDF). It's a response to what the coalition says has been a history of significant amounts of secondary screening towards Sikhs and other religious and ethnic minorities at airports around the United States.

In the wake of September 11, many Sikhs in America have been unfairly profiled at airports. Many Sikhs wear turbans, known as "dastaars," which cover their "kesh," or uncut hair. Sikhs believe that wearing a dastaar is a religious obligation, and is done to symbolize faith, honor, and purity. Typically, dastaars are worn by men, although some women also wear them.

"The forms are drawn directly from the TSA website," Rajdeep Singh, the director of law and policy at the Sikh Coalition, told Ars on Monday. "The app allows users to bypass the website and reduce the time lag between when an incident occurs and filing a complaint."

The app has a very simple design, with three buttons on its home screen: "Report," "Know Your Rights," and "About the Sikh Coalition." The first button links to a form asking the user to input their name, e-mail, phone, address, airport, and airline flight. There is then room to describe the incident in question, concluding with a "Send Reports Now" button at the bottom.

Although the app has only been made available for a few hours, Singh said at least one report was already filed via FlyRights.

"Notably, it was a non-Sikh traveler," he added.

Other civil rights leaders and politicians have also praised the app.

"Unfortunately, the inappropriate actions of the few who engage in racial profiling create mistrust and suspicion that hurts all law enforcement officers," said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), in a statement. "This app is an important new tool that allows passengers to fight profiling."

UPDATE: Chris Conley, a technology and civil liberties policy attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, called Ars to say that "It's great to have a technology that helps people communicate and know what their rights are. But the ongoing concern is that we still don’t know what the TSA’s policies are, and there is no app for that."

Meanwhile, on Monday, the TSA e-mailed Ars with this statement: "TSA’s diverse workforce is committed to treating each traveler with dignity and respect throughout the screening process. TSA does not profile passengers on the basis of race, ethnicity or religion. We continually engage with community organizations, including the Sikh Coalition, and individuals to help us understand unique passenger concerns and we support efforts to gather passenger feedback about the screening process. We encourage any traveler with a concern about potential discrimination to contact TSA directly through our numerous channels of communication."

44 Reader Comments

In the last decade I've done my level best to keep calm and keep on doing business in your previously great country. But, frankly, fuck you USA. It's ten years from 9.11, and you're still behaving like frightened children. And I am far from being in a club of one when it comes to ramping down business travel to the US, simply to avoid having days wasted in service of your paranoia.

Flying to/from the US is an absolute horror. Thanks for the "random" check where all you did is wipe a cloth on my laptop, then "randomly" hold back my luggage, only to have to waste gas to have someone personally deliver my luggage to me a day later.

Oh, and the three male TSA agents picking out mainly women with larger carry-on luggage at the gate for "further inspection".

Am I the only one bothered by commentors conflating Sikhism with Islam?

Seems so... some of the commentators are naive, but willfully ignorant. I'm genuinely impressed by the level of conversation going on here. Especially the gentlemen arguing that Islam is not the only religion of extremism.More importantly that statement by TSA is probably the most worrisome:

"TSA’s diverse workforce is committed to treating each traveler with dignity and respect..."

I take issue with the "diverse workforce". What are the prerequisites for becoming a TSA *ahem* officer of the law? It seems the average worker needs to barely graduate high school. I believe their lack of awareness of their own policies and flyers' Constitutional rights is due to the simple lack of education. I see most of the TSA workers as cud-chewing, bovines who barely function at a cogniscent level. There is nothing "diverse" about those workers, trust me. Just as how there is nothing diverse about our military forces.

The good senator from Illinois refers to TSA employees as law enforcement officers. I didn't think that was the case. Am I misremembering, misunderstanding?

They are the cops within the checkpoint area. So the senator was right, in a way?

TSA are not cops and are not LEO. They cannot arrest or detain you. They are basically glorified security guards.

Doubter wrote:

I'll send $1,000 to the PayPal account of your choice if you can find me a non-stop flight between, say, Beijing and Palm Desert (a route I flew recently). Or Tokyo (any airport) and Terre Haute, Indiana (another route I flew recently). I'll make that second one easy and give you either IND or CMI.

You should add the qualifier that the flights should be regularly scheduled. It's easy to charter a plane that can do that. There is TSA security screening required for private jets. Wonder why airlines are having so much trouble when their best customers are actively discouraged from flying them?